Love, work, and changes in extraversion and neuroticism over time

The present study examined individual differences in change in extraversion, neuroticism, and work and relationship satisfaction. Of particular interest were the correlations between changes. Data were from the Victorian Quality of Life Panel Study (B. Headey & A. Wearing, 1989, 1992), in which an overall 1,130 individuals participated (ages 16 to 70). Respondents were assessed every 2 years from 1981 to 1989. Four major findings emerged. (a) There were significant individual differences in changes in extraversion and neuroticism. (b) Change was not limited to young adulthood. (c) Development was systematic in that increased work and relationship satisfaction was associated with decreases in neuroticism and increases in extraversion over time; on average, the magnitude of the relation between changes in work and relationship satisfaction and traits was .40. (d) Cross-lagged models indicated traits had a greater influence on role satisfaction; however, marginal support emerged for work satisfaction leading to increased extraversion. Implications of correlated change are discussed.     

Parental bonding and personality pathology assessed by clinician report

The present study focused on the link between parental bonding and personality pathology. We developed a clinician-report version of the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI; Parker, Tupling, and Brown, 1979), which 203 clinicians applied to a randomly selected patient in their care. The goal of the study was to examine the reliability and validity of a clinician-report PBI, and to provide a preliminary examination of the relation between personality disorder (PD) symptoms and parental bonding in a national sample of patients in treatment in the community. Factor analysis yielded two factors (parental rejection/care and parental overprotection) for each parent, which had high internal consistency (coefficient alphas all >.80). The factor structure of the clinician-report measure strongly resembled the factor structure of the widely used self-report instrument. Parental bonding as assessed by clinician report showed coherent patterns of association with PD diagnoses, which resembled those found in other samples. Maternal rejection/care showed a particular link to borderline PD (BPD), and remained a significant predictor of BPD along with sexual abuse and physical abuse in multiple regression analysis. These data, along with others from recent studies using clinicians as informants, suggest that clinicians can provide reliable and valid data when their observations are quantified using psychometrically sound instruments. Clinician-report methods may provide a useful complement to studies of personality disorders that rely primarily on self-reports or structured interviews.     

ERP correlates of form and rhyme letter tasks in impaired reading children: a critical evaluation.

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were obtained from 15 electrode sites in six average and six impaired reading children, 12 years of age, during visual letter discrimination tasks. Subjects responded to target letters with an enclosed area in the form task and to letters that rhymed with "e" in the rhyme task. Response accuracy was similar between the groups. Reaction time was relatively longer for the impaired group during the rhyme task. At lateral sites, condition differences were evident as greater negative shifts in the rhyme task than the form at 170 and 470 ms as well as a delayed late positivity for the rhyme. In terms of reading ability, the average readers' ERPs were more negative than those of the impaired group at 270 and 450 ms. Inter-hemispheric variations were also seen between the groups, with the average readers more negative than the impaired readers at right hemisphere sites. Contrary to expectations, group differences in the ERP did not vary substantially as a function of condition, and task demands were evaluated in view of these findings.     

What to do on spring break? The role of predicted,on-line,and remembered experience in future choice

When individuals choose future activities on the basis of their past experiences, what guides those choices? The present study compared students' predicted, on-line, and remembered spring-break experiences, as well as the influence of these factors on students' desire to take a similar vacation in the future. Predicted and remembered experiences were both more positive-and, paradoxically, more negative-than on-line experiences. Of key importance, path analyses revealed that remembered experience, but neither on-line nor anticipated experience, directly predicted the desire to repeat the experience. These results suggest that although on-line measures may be superior to retrospective measures for approximating objective experience, retrospective measures may be superior for predicting choice.     

Developments in cognitive neuroscience: II. Implications for theories of transference

An integration of psychoanalytic theory with contemporary developments in cognitive neuroscience offers a useful perspective on long-standing controversies about the nature of transference, and a better understanding of the precise mechanisms by which transferential processes occur. Contemporary psychoanalytic views of transference are reviewed, and the many processes that constitute transference are described. Two issues that have emerged in different guises for several decades-the role of the analyst in eliciting transference, and the nature of "real" and "transferential" components of the therapeutic relationship-are reconsidered in the light of concepts such as connectionist networks. Although a useful analytic stance is one that allows the patient's enduring dynamics to dominate the analytic field, it is suggested, anonymity is neither a cognitive possibility nor the driving force behind most transference reactions, and the distinction between "real" and "transferential" perceptions is one of therapeutic interest, not of mechanism. Certain features of the analytic situation make some dynamics more likely than others to enter the treatment relationship, notably those related to authority, intimacy and attachment, and sexuality. Transference reactions are best understood as constructed from a combination of the patient's enduring dispositions to react in particular ways under particular conditions; features of the analytic situation and of the analyst; and interactions between patient and analyst. These reactions do not unfold ineluctably from the patient's mind in the consulting room, nor are they cognitive constructions of the patient-analyst dyad or co-constructions of relatively equal partners exerting their influence on the analytic field.     

Eye-hand interactions differ in the human premotor and parietal cortices

In order to successfully look at and reach for a visual target the central nervous system must perform a complex sensorimotor transformation. How this transformation is mapped onto relevant brain structures has become the subject of much recent investigation. In the present paper we examined the contribution of the human premotor cortex (PMC) to this transformation process during a task requiring coordinated eye and hand movements. For this purpose, we made use of single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to temporarily disrupt the processing occurring in the PMC during task performance. Subjects made open-loop pointing movements accompanied by saccades of the same size or two or three times larger. Under normal circumstances without TMS, the pointing movement amplitude increased with saccade amplitude. When TMS was applied over the PMC 100-200 ms after target presentation, the influence of saccade amplitude on the pointing movement amplitude was increased. This is the opposite effect to that observed in a previous study [Journal of Neurophysiology 84 (200) 1677-1680] when TMS was applied over the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) during the same task. We suggest that this pattern of results is consistent with the coding of the reach plan in eye-centered coordinates in the PPC and limb-centered coordinates in the PMC.     

Revisiting the Roles of Literacy Coaches: Does Reality Match Research?

This study surveyed 104 school-based elementary literacy coaches to explore their perceptions of their roles as coaches. These perceptions were then examined relative to the Standards for Reading Professionals—Revised 2010, developed by the International Reading Association. Overall, coaches reported the majority of the tasks they carried out as coaches were tasks they believed should be part of the role of a coach. They most highly valued tasks that allowed them to interact with and support teachers, ultimately leading to improved student achievement. Coaches also indicated a lack of clarity about their role in supporting the standards related to diversity.     

Where Hypotheses Come From: Learning New Relations by Structural Alignment

We test whether comparison can promote learning of new relational abstractions. In Experiment 1, preschoolers heard labels for novel spatial patterns and were asked to extend the label to one of two alternatives: one sharing an object with the standard or one having the same relational pattern as the standard. Children strongly preferred the object match when given one standard but were significantly more likely to choose the relational match when they compared two standards. Experiment 2 provided evidence that comparison processing—as opposed to simply seeing two exemplars—is necessary for this relational effect. Preschoolers who were shown the two standards sequentially without a prompt to compare them preferred object matches, as did those who viewed only one standard. In contrast, those who saw the exemplars together, with a prompt to compare them, showed the same elevated relational responding as found in Experiment 1. We suggest that structural alignment processes are crucial to developing new relational abstractions.